The subject matter of the invention relates to a teat cup cleaning unit comprising a distribution unit.
Raw milk is an important food and is an important raw material for the food industry. In order to protect the consumer and for the purposes of technical processibility, milk has to meet both national and international quality requirements. In the Federal Republic of Germany, according to § 3 of the Milk Regulations, raw milk must not have any abnormal sensory features, and therefore, according to Annex 3 of the Milk Regulations, the udder of animals from which milk is obtained as a food has to be cleaned at the start of a milking operation. Cleaning in this case must be thorough and complete.
It is important to maintain prescribed standards of hygiene in order to ensure high quality of the milk. It is therefore not only necessary to clean the udder and the teats of the animal but also the components of a milking system. The cleaning may also include disinfection of the components of the milking system. The cleaning operation may be carried out by means of a fluid, in particular by means of water, with and without cleaning, disinfecting or other additives. In particular, the teat cup cluster must be cleaned of milk residues and disinfected. The teat cup cluster does not have to be disinfected during each cleaning operation. The cleaning operation may take place after each milking operation or after a certain number of milking operations.
It is known that, after each cow has been milked, the milk cup cluster is cleaned by means of water, a disinfection solution and water again and is optionally dried with compressed air. This involves what is referred to as intermediate cleaning.
For the purpose of cleaning the teat cup cluster, in particular the individual teat cups, the teat cups are connected to a teat cup cleaning unit. The teat cup cleaning unit may have holders used to hold the teat cup cluster on the cleaning unit. It is known that the teat cup cleaning unit has a distribution unit. The distribution unit has an inlet and at least two outlets for a cleaning liquid. The number of outlets depends on the number of teat cups to be cleaned. If, for example, the teat cup cluster used to milk cows is cleaned, four outlets are correspondingly provided for a cleaning liquid. The cleaning liquid flows through the inlet, the distribution unit and from the latter via the outlets into the teat cups.
For example, WO 2008/058723 discloses a cleaning system for teat cups, the cleaning system having a holder for receiving at least part of a teat cup, said part containing an opening for the insertion of a teat. The cleaning system furthermore has a fluid dispensing device which is designed in such a manner that a first cleaning fluid can pass into the opening from a first fluid source and a second cleaning fluid from a fluid source.
Another exemplary embodiment of a teat cup cleaning unit is described in WO 03/077645. Said teat cup cleaning unit is designed in such a manner that cleaning fluid is conducted via a line into the teat cup.
WO 03/086054 A1 discloses a teat cup cleaning unit comprising a distribution unit. The distribution unit has an inlet and two outlets for a cleaning liquid. The inlet is connected to a line through which a cleaning agent flows. For this purpose, a formed, tubular part projects into the line. An internal thread is provided in the tubular part. A distributor which is of hollow design and has lateral openings is screwed into the thread. The lateral openings can be brought to coincide with openings in the tubular part. By means of the position of the insert within the tubular part, the entire opening cross section can be changed, and therefore the quantity of liquid flowing through the inlet can be set.
A further embodiment of a teat cup cleaning unit comprising a distribution unit is disclosed by WO 00/76301. Despite a setting element, the flow through the distribution unit may be changed.
Another embodiment of a teat cup cleaning unit comprising a distribution unit is disclosed by GB 20 97 891. The distribution unit has a chamber with an inlet and four outlets. The cleaning liquid passes through the inlet into the chamber and leaves the latter via the four outlets. The inlet into the chamber is provided with a valve which is formed such that a cross section of the inlet can be changed.
A comparable configuration of a teat cup cleaning unit is also disclosed by the document NZ 270 183 A.
A problem of a teat cup cleaning unit comprising a distribution unit is that a satisfactory result of cleaning all of the teat cups is associated with a considerable consumption of cleaning agent.